ECP rejects PPP plea to dispose of ‘rigging’ case

Commission summons LG polls returning officers with record on Feb 7

KARACHI:

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday rejected the request of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to dispose of the case of alleged rigging in the local government elections in Karachi, and set the date of February 7 for final arguments.

The commission’s members said that they will take a decision after listening to everyone. The election commission ordered all the returning officers to appear with their records at the next hearing.

A four-member bench of ECP headed by Member Sindh Nisar Durrani heard the petitions regarding irregularities in the local government elections in Karachi.

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) counsel Hasan Javed Advocate argued that in many constituencies of the local government elections there is a difference between the results available with the returning officers and the presiding officers. He said they need time to cross-examine the returning officers to prove that the results have been altered by rigging.

The PPP lawyer argued that in the light of Supreme Court decisions, this case was inadmissible. According to the law, only the candidate, and no one else, can challenge the election results. On which Member Balochistan remarked that common man can also apply if the election is not transparent.

The PPP lawyer replied that after the polling, the authority of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) ends, so the returning officers should be ordered to issue the results. Member Punjab Babar Bharwana said, “we should listen to them as a test case to find out whether tempering was done or not. If something wrong is detected, we can also take suo moto action.”

ECP has fixed the date of February 7 for the final arguments.

Controversies over the quality of electoral processes do not augur well, particularly when the political parties are preparing for General Elections that are constitutionally due by October 11, 2023, read a report of Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Despite controversies an impressive number of people turned to vote in local government elections in Badin, Jamshoro, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allah Yar, Thatta, and Malir Districts.

However, the voter turnout remained relatively lower in Karachi Central, Karachi East, Karachi West, Karachi South, Korangi, Hyderabad, and Kemari Districts.

Demand for polls on remaining seats

JI Karachi Ameer Engr Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has vowed to continue the proceedings in Karachi’s political arena, following the party’s outstanding performance in the recent local government elections and demanded of the ECP to announce date for LG polls on remaining union councils in Karachi. The JI leader expressed his confidence that the JI will get back all the seats it has challenged on the basis of form 11 after today’s hearing by the ECP.

Lambasting the PPP government in Sindh, he said that the PPP utilized the governmental machinary and biased returning officers (ROs) and district returning officers (DROs) to fraudulently obtain results of its own will. He added that the PPP would not get even 70 seats in the city if the polls had not been rigged.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2023.